Utility companies in New Jersey take wildfire precautions as drought persists
MOUNT LAUREL, New Jersey (WPVI) -- As extremely dry conditions persist, a new wildfire sparked Monday in Lakewood, New Jersey, near the Lakewood Country Club and Pine Park.
The cause is still under investigation. For weeks, the forest fire service has been asking everyone to avoid burning where possible.
Utility companies are also starting to take precautions.
"We've taken proactive steps to turn off certain features in devices that are along our power lines and in our substations to reduce the risk of those devices potentially sparking a wildfire," said Chris Hoenig, a spokesperson with Jersey Central Power and Light.
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The devices they've adjusted typically shorten the length of a power outage by sending short pulses of energy through lines that may have been bumped by a tree branch.
"Right now with the risk of lines potentially being down because of those trees, we want to make sure we're not sending that electricity through the line where it would arc, it would spark when it's touching the ground," said Hoenig.
Wildfires in other regions have been sparked by power lines, including the deadly fire in Lahaina on the island of Maui last year.
JCP&L noted that this adjustment may mean that any power outages that occur may last a little longer, but say they have extra crews on hand to inspect lines when they do.
State climatologist Dave Robinson says every little bit helps.
"We need to control sparks. That's what it comes down to," said Robinson, who is also a professor at Rutgers University.
He studies patterns and the history of climate in the Garden State.
He calls this period of drought unprecedented, and he's already looking ahead to what this means for next year.
"We're in a situation if we don't pull out of this very persistent pattern in the next couple of months we're not going to have the opportunity to re-fill our groundwater and our rivers and our reservoirs by the time next spring comes along," said Robinson.
While the little bits of rain in the forecast aren't making a huge dent, Robinson says we don't want to make up the deficit all at once.
Steady amounts of rain or snow as we head into winter would be ideal as we try to dig ourselves out of this drought warning, experts say.
